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Red spots on areola: thrush / mastitis / or just bad latch?

I found a bruise like red spot on my areola yesterday evening and today there are already two. They are hardly painful: I feel a small stabbing-like pain on the surface when my DD feeds from that side and also an occasional deeper pain when she does not feed. Both are quite faint but my pain threshold is generally quite high.

My 4 month old DD is the happiest baby ever and I didn’t find anything unusual on her. She also feeds as usual.

After googling dark red spots on areola I thought it might be an issue of bad latching or thrush. I read some of the threads here about thrush and mine (whatever it is) is nowhere near as bad but in case if it is thrush I want to act quickly.

I am taking my DD for her vaccination tomorrow do you think I should make another appointment or just ask the nurse to have a look? I also regularly go to a BF cafe but it is run by (lovely) volunteers but I don't think they are qualified to tell if it is thrush or not.

Also my older DD asked the day before yesterday if she could feed too and I let her. I don’t think she can feed properly as I stopped feeding her at 6 month old (she is two and a half now) but whatever she did felt nice and gentle however she was at a quite awkward position as I have no idea how to feed two simultaneously.

At first I did not worry at all and thought it might be because of her until the second spot appeared and she did not BF since.

The pain is not too bad at all but I don’t want it to get worse and I definitely do not want to give up BF as it was already emotionally very difficult to stop BF DD-1 at so young in order to have more treatment.

I would probably book an appointment to be on the safe side - I have been treated for thrush a couple of times and although I was never sure that it was thrush I used the cream (and medicine for LO) just incase it was the onset because like you I didn't want to disrupt breastfeeding. The shooting pains certainly could indicate thrush. I think mastitis is extremely painful rather than uncomfortable and is usually accompanied by flu like symptoms. I think blocked milk ducts present themselves as white spots rather than red so sounds like thrush or a latch issue to me. Has your baby had problems latching before? Lansinoh cream or rubbing breastmilk on your nipples works wonders. Hope you find a solution. It certainly sounds like you'll find the cause before it gets too bad so I wouldn't worry about it disrupting breastfeeding :) x

Thanks a lot for encouraging me to see the doctor you wouldn't beleive but after 3 cycles of IVF/PGD I am still a bit vary of them (for myself not for my children luckily). I have to admit though I didn't make an appointment in the end as it is getting better so might just have been a bad latch. I will keep an eye on it but I am hopeful at the moment.

Sorry you had a bad experience I always feel sorry for my first born that I am "experimenting" on her with my parenting skills I would rather be my own second baby. I really try to learn from others but it is still tough for first / only children. Today is even better so I hope it will clear up soon xx